The Lanta Resort

It has been a month since our big group of family visitors left and I am finally getting around to writing about the Lanta Resort, our destination on Koh Lanta for a little R and R while they were here. Oh, excuse me, I guess every day is R and R for Nancy and I here in Chiangmai!  We spent three or four days there and I definitely left with mixed feelings about the place. In spite of its shortcomings, we all had a great time for the few days we were there.

It is not a party location but more a family oriented resort with lots of kids around. Its location on Long Beach is about the only really good thing it has going for it! From dawn to dusk, the wide, sandy beach is fairly devoid of anybody. It was not unusual at any time to see less than a dozen people within view from the beachside bar.   The sand around most of Koh Lanta is not the soft, white talcum powder that you will find in places such as Phuket, but it makes up for it with the lack of population.  If you plan on spending most of your time at the beach, and don’t like crowds in and out of the water, this would be a great location for a reasonable price.

The buffet breakfast that is included with the rooms is decent but it would be better to go to other nearby restaurants either on the beach or in the small village of Salatan for lunch and dinner. The in-house restaurant is acceptable but you will pay less for better food in the other places. There are restaurants within walking distance along the beach and Salatan is a short songtaow ride away.

It is a very large resort, but fairly old, with a lot of construction still going on. As a result there are a couple of large areas of standing water, which I am sure are responsible for the mosquito problem in the rooms and the restaurant.  And there are a lot of mosquitos!  If you look at other reviews, this is one problem you will see that comes up over and over again.

Depending on where you stay, you could be located quite far from the beach. There is a wide variety of rooms and villas available, some with their own private pools. Obviously, the closer you are to the water, the more you will pay for the room. It is a pleasant walk to the beach but it is something that people should realize when they are booking a room. Not everyone wants to walk a long distance to the water.

There are two bars, one on the beach and one at the large pool that is located away from the beach in the main part of the resort. The drinks are nothing to write home about and the service was pretty non-existent. At the beach bar, the servers seem to be more interested in talking to each other than looking out for the customers. And it wasn’t just us. We watched other couples as they tried to get the attention of the bartenders in the distance. You pretty much have to go up to the bar and order your own food and drink or you could be waiting a very long time.

We did go to the steak dinner on the beach. The setting was amazing and the view was fantastic. Long Beach is located on the sunset side of the island, and you can watch the sun slowly dissolve into the horizon as you are having your dinner. It was advertised as a steak dinner and the posters made it look very enticing with photos of juicy, thick “Western” steaks cooked to perfection.  However, the reality was something different.

The fruits and veggies that were spread out along the beachside buffet tables were acceptable but not exactly high quality. The “steaks”, on the other hand, were dried up, and overcooked, small thin pieces of tough beef.  There were other meats available as well. To top it off, everything was ice cold. As a family, we had a great time but it certainly wasn’t because of the food!

You can see by now that I wasn’t that impressed with the Lanta Resort. But it gets better. When we reserved the dinner the night before, I am certain that I paid for the six meals. We received a receipt, with the total amount on the paper.  My sister, who was also with me, also was sure that we had paid. However, when we checked out, the steak dinners were on our bill.  WTF!!

We were told that it wasn’t a receipt, “it was a voucher.” So this was 12:00 and the manager at the desk said they would look into it and to return an hour later. So back we went at 1:00pm. He looks at us with a straight face and says that everything is fine; that it was an “accounting error” and that, yes, we had paid for the dinners. Fine.

So we returned at 2:30pm to wait for the bus that was soon going to be leaving at 3:00pm to drive us the two hours to the airport.  And guess what!  They told us we hadn’t paid for the steak dinners and that we couldn’t leave until they were paid for. Uhh…we lost it!  A lot of screaming and yelling took place on our part. We told them to call the police, and to check the CCTV, which would have proved one way or the other who was correct.  They said they couldn’t do either before we had to leave. It was either pay for the meals or miss our plane. So we paid for the meals. It was a very unfortunate way to finish off our wonderful holiday.

I have since written to the resort about the situation, still arguing that I paid for the dinners. They did not respond to my emails.  It is not worth my time to fight it anymore.  I know others think this is a wonderful place but you couldn’t pay me to return!  Maybe my experience was an exception but I have also read other reviews where people had similar problems. Anyway, as I stated above, we all had a wonderful time, despite its shortcomings. The price is reasonable and the beach is beautiful. Just be sure to obtain a stamped receipt of anything you pay for.